Breast pumps are well known, and generally comprise a hood or shield that fits over the breast, a vacuum pump connected to the hood for generating an intermittent vacuum (or negative pressure) within the breastshield, and a receptacle for expressed milk. Negative pressure is pressure below atmospheric pressure; positive pressure has also sometimes been used in breast pumps. Typically, the intermittent suction action of the vacuum pump serves to pull on the breast and nipple and thereby express milk. The milk flows from the hood, through a conduit structure and into a collection container, such as a baby bottle, for storage and later use.
Breast pumps can be manually or electrically operated. In manually operated breast pump assemblies, the intermittent vacuum is typically generated by means of a piston-type or other hand drivable pump that attaches directly to the breast pump assembly. The intermittent pressure (e.g., vacuum) in motor-driven breast pump assemblies is typically derived from a motor drive unit that is separate from the breastshield and breast pump assembly. The vacuum is accordingly transmitted to the breastpump assembly through plastic tubing. The plastic tubing is often attached to one or both of the motorized pump and/or the breast pump assembly by use of a connector.
Because of the transfer of air throughout the breast pump assembly, the connector provides an airtight seal. Additionally, the user should be able to easily manipulate the connector in order to hook up the components and disconnect them repeatedly. Prior art connectors have used raw tubing inserted over a protruding stem, or a pair of tapered cylindrical male and female surfaces to provide the connection and seal. These methods really do not give the user any “positive feedback” that the connection has been made, and sometimes require significant effort to make or break the connection. Another issue with some of these prior art connectors is that they can lead to the tubing bending and even kinking at the connection point if the user strains the tubing through movement during pumping.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a connector that provides positive feedback to the user that the connection is made, allows for ease of connection, and that allows for some way to better avoid kinking of the tubing. The present invention satisfies this demand.